Camp Kumoni By Anistasia Allread Edited and generally buggered about with by Nick B           “So, if I wanted to make one of these at home, what would I need?” Erika asked Skyler “Rope. Lots and lots of rope.” Skyler smiled.

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Camp Kumoni 64

Erika woke up and rolled over in bed to look around the room of the cabin. The other girls in the cabin were all sleeping soundly. She then realized that Krystal’s bed was empty. She cast a glance at the bathroom and found that the door was open. Suddenly awake, she sat up in bed and looked at the alarm clock. The alarm hadn’t gone off. Everyone was sleeping in.

Erika slid to the floor and padded across to the bathroom. It was empty. She closed the door behind her and relieved her bladder. She wondered where Krystal could have gone too. She wouldn’t leave without Rachel, would she?

Erika rinsed her hands and went back into the cabin. Krystal’s bed was empty and unmade, Rachel snored softly in hers.

Just then the reveille sounded over the loud speaker. The other girls in the cabin suddenly jumped up and looked around confused.

“Crap!” the alarm didn’t go off,” Rachel swore.

As the sound over the loud speaker finished, Krystal walked in the front door.

“Where have you been?” Phoenix asked.

She shrugged. “I did my morning exercise.”

“You didn’t wake us,” Rachel accused.

“It’s the last day of camp, I thought, I’d let you all sleep in.”

“That was nice, but you shouldn’t have been out there on your own, Krystal,” Phoenix admonished.

“Sorry.”

The girls had to race down to the showers. It was the first time all summer that they had to stand and wait their turn.

“Make sure you shave today,” Samantha muttered only loud enough for Erika to hear. “Oh, and don’t wash your hair.”

“Why?” Erika wrinkled her nose.

“It will hold your style better–for the dance.”

“Oh, Okay.” She pulled at a few strands of hair to study them.

Breakfast consisted of waffles, with fruit toppings and syrup. Cereal and fruit were always available for those who wanted them.

“What’s on the schedule today?” Rachel asked.

“The dance tonight after dinner,” Victoria shrugged.

“What about during the day?”

“Nothing. It is a free day all day.”

“But you all should start to pack up your belongings sometime today too,” Phoenix suggested. “It will make it easier tomorrow.”

“What would you like to do today?” Tricia asked Erika.

“Spend it with my friends,” Erika smiled. “If Skyler hasn’t taken the rope course down, I’d like to run through it one more time. Other than that, I thought I would do what all the other girls do on a day like this… Lie out in the sun, check out boys, read magazines and gossip.” Erika laughed at the glares from her cabin mates, “What did you have planned, Dani?”

“Hang out with Derek. Duh.”

“Rachel?”

“Oh, not much.” Rachel darted a look over at Victoria.

“Katie?”

“Hang out at the lake.”

“Samantha?”

“The same.”

“Victoria?”

“A bit of this a bit of that.”

“As soon as we finish dinner, we have to get you back to the cabin and get you ready for your ball, Cinderella,” Tricia informed her.

“Don’t go getting sunburned today.” Samantha warned.

“Or diving off the high dive and getting hurt.” Dani added.

“Or running off into the woods to sulk,” Phoenix joined.

“Why would I want to sulk?” Erika asked. “I have such wonderful friends to keep me happy.”

“Just the same,” Phoenix said and winked.

“Save me your unwanted waffles.” Erika looked around the table. “I want to take them to Liberty.”

The Lavender ladies tossed and piled their uneaten, unwanted waffles onto Erika’s plate.

* * *

Erika spent the day running from one thing to another. She and Tricia took a plate of waffles down to the lake. They were most of the way around the lake when they found Liberty.

The duck was no longer a black fluff-ball. Sleek multi-colored feathers kept him watertight.

“Well, fella.” Erika tossed him bits of a waffle which he gladly gobbled up. “Today is my last day. I’m going to miss seeing you in the mornings. You had a way of brightening up my day. I’d take you with me if I could, but I don’t have any place to keep you. No pond at my house and although I’d have plenty of table scraps, I’m not sure the neighbors would enjoy your droppings all over their yards.”

The other ducks, Liberty’s brothers and sisters all paddled up and joined in the feast that Erika and Tricia had brought them.

“I don’t know why I’m talking to you,” Erika sighed. “Maybe because I am a bigger bird brain than you. I hope you have a good flight south. I won’t be here next year, so take care of yourself and your young. Don’t let anyone bully them.”

Erika tossed the last of the waffle to Liberty and turned to Tricia. “Let’s go.”

The two girls walked down the path. Erika turned around and faced the lake. “Bye, Liberty.”

Campers were already starting to show up at the lake. The two girls passed on by and made their way to the rope course.

“Skyler?” Erika called. “Skyler?”

“Well, hello.”

Erika looked way up into the canopy. Skyler swung from one tree to another. “What do you want?”

“I was hoping to go through the rope course again.”

“I’m in the middle of dismantling it right now, but if you want to harness up, you can help me.”

Erika looked at Tricia.

“Go ahead. I’ll just sit here and enjoy the peacefulness.”

“Really? Are you sure you won’t mind?”

Tricia nodded with a smile. “Just don’t be all day, because I would like to spend a little bit of time sunning, watching boys and gossiping.”

Erika gave Tricia a big hug then retrieved a harness.

“So, if I wanted to make one of these at home, what would I need?” Erika asked Skyler as they worked on dismantling the rope course.

“Rope. Lots and lots of rope.” Skyler smiled.

Erika laughed aloud, something that she hadn’t allowed herself to do as Eric.

“Seriously.” Skyler’s eyes lost their humor. “Learn how to tie different knots then buy lots of rope.”

Erika spent the better part of an hour up in the air, dangling by a rope while helping the young man.

“You should be getting back to camp, I’m sure there are other things you would like to be doing on your last day.”

“Some.” Erika admitted. She lowered herself to the ground and dropped her harness into the container before taking Tricia’s hand and walking back towards camp.

“Thank you.” Erika squeezed Tricia’s hand.

“You’re welcome.” Tricia squeezed back.

Holding hands, the two girls walked back up to their cabin. Erika took her blue, one-piece swim suit into the bathroom.

This would be the last time she would be putting it on. She slid it up over her legs very slowly, pulling the straps up and over her shoulders, feeling the Lycra stretch and form its self over her abdomen. She stood in front of the mirror and looked at herself. Looked at how the suit accentuated curves she really didn’t have much of, and smoothed down areas that were too bulky.

She sighed, took up her towel and rejoined Tricia.

The sandy beach next to the lake was full. Erika was reminded of beaches filled with sea lions, all sunning themselves, barking and biting one another to protect their territory.

Victoria waved to them from a spot in the shade. The two girls, one in a blue one piece the other in pink bikini, wove their way through the maze of sun worshipers.

“You’re in the shade.” Erika pointed out.

“Only for another ten minutes.” Victoria smiled. “Then they will be in the shade and we’ll be shade free for the rest of the afternoon.”

Erika and Tricia spread out towels next to the newspaper editor.

“Let me put sun block on you.” Tricia suggested.

“Yeah, you really don’t want a sun burn the night of the big dance.” Victoria agreed. She reached over and grabbed a bottle. “Use mine.”

“Lay down,” Tricia instructed.

Erika did as she was told. Tricia squeezed a bit of lotion into her hands, rubbed them together then began rubbing it into Erika’s legs. Tricia’s soft delicate fingers were absolutely magical as she worked the lotion into Erika’s skin.

Erika barely suppressed a moan as Tricia moved to the open back of her bathing suit. She moved Erika’s hair to one side, rubbed some on the back of her neck then worked her way down her arms.

“Okay, flip.” Tricia told her.

Erika did as instructed and watched as the pretty blonde rubbed lotion in on the front of her legs.

“I had better get my chest area.” Erika picked up the lotion and spread it around her breast forms, throat, and face.

The three girls spread out and let the shadow of the tree pass over them and started shading the people next to them.

“So, what is this school like?” Tricia asked.

“I’m not the one to ask.” Erika’s voice was full of malice.

“That bad?”

“I’ll be surprised if you are still my friend at the end of the first week.”

“Things will be different this year,” Victoria sighed.

“I don’t know how. I’ll be ‘the plague’ with in the first couple of days. No one will want to sit next to me, or talk to me. Not even you, Victoria.”

“Of course, I’ll talk to you.”

“Look how you treated me when you found out who I was.” Erika pointed out.

“And look how wrong I was.”

“No one at school will be willing to give me that chance. You barely were.”

“You aren’t painting me a very good picture of the school that I’ll be going to.” Tricia pointed out.

“The only thing good about the school was leaving it on the last day for summer break.” Erika was venomous.

Tricia looked over at Victoria.

“Erika, or I should say Eric, had a bad experience last year.”

“That is an understatement,” Erika huffed.

“Samantha and I won’t let that happen this next year,” Victoria avowed.

“I’ll be there too.” Tricia stated. “And from what I hear, Krystal will be joining us as well.

Erika didn’t say anything.

“We’ll have to eat lunch together,” Victoria put out there.

“No one would bother you if you had all of us eating lunch with you,” Tricia told Erika.

“Don’t count on it,” Erika muttered. Out loud she said, “I have more important things to worry about right now. I have to worry about dancing and what Ashley might do to me.”

“Don’t worry too much about Ashley,” Victoria stated. She whispered to Tricia, “We’re taking care of her.”

Tricia gave a knowing smile.

The girls spent the next hour and a half gossiping, talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up and what kind of house they wanted to live in. how many kids and the like.

“Okay, Erika.” Samantha approached. “It’s time for you to start getting ready for the dance.”

“It isn’t even dinner time yet,” Erika protested.

“Girls have to spend a little more time getting ready for dances than guys do–especially if they might be the Queen.”

“Are you serious?”

“Come on, Erika.” Tricia helped her up.

“What can possibly take that long?” Erika wondered.

Samantha, Tricia, and Victoria created a human bubble around her as they walked her up the path to their cabin.

“First things, first,” Samantha said when they entered the cabin. “You need to take a shower, but don’t get your hair wet.”

“I’ll take her down there for that,” Tricia volunteered.

“Remember to check everything.” Samantha warned. “Don’t take anything for granted.”

“What are you talking about?” Erika looked to the two girls who seemed to be talking in code.

“Girls play war games more viciously than guys do,” Samantha explained. “Here, I got you this special body wash. It smells really good, and as you can see, no one has tampered with it.” She displayed the plastic seal still intact.

“Make sure you shave real well,” Victoria warned.

“I shaved this morning.”

“Just touch up, then.” Victoria handed her a small package, “Here take this razor, it’s still in its packaging.”

“Are you nuts? You think Ashley could slip in here and do something to our stuff?”

“Why not? We did.” Samantha gave Victoria a wink.